Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni criticized the Netflix series about Alexander the Great. Mendoni described the production as "extremely poor quality" and the content as "filled with historical inaccuracies".
Mendoni's comments on "Alexander: The Making of a God" came at the height of the scandal caused by the portrayal of the romantic relationship between Alexander the Great and his confidant and friend Hephaestion. An article in Eleftheros Tipos called the show a "distortion of the truth" and accused Oliver Stone's 2004 film Alexander of launching a "propaganda campaign about Alexander's homosexuality," the Guardian reported.
Dimitris Natsiou, chairman of the Christian Orthodox far-right political party Niki, called the series "deplorable, unacceptable and ahistorical" and said it aimed to "subconsciously instill the idea that homosexuality was acceptable in ancient times - an element that has no basis". .
Regarding the relationship shown in the series between Alexander and Hephaestion, Mendoni said, "The sources do not mention that they went beyond friendship."
"The concept of love in antiquity is broad and multidimensional. We cannot interpret either the practices or the persons who acted 2,300 years ago by our measures, norms, and assumptions. For 2,300 years, Alexander the Great never needed, nor does he now need the intervention of any unsolicited defender of his historical memory or, even more, of his personality and moral authority."
When Natsiu asked if the government would take action against Netflix, the culture minister said such a step would be unconstitutional. The Constitution of Greece has protected the freedom of art since the beginning of the 19th century.
"The Ministry of Culture does not exercise censorship, does not carry out actions that lead to criminal prosecution or prohibition, does not manipulate, does not restrict, does not control the dissemination of information and ideas neither preventively nor repressively," Mendoni said.
"The inspiration of artists, the personal interpretation and judgment of people obviously cannot be subjected to regulatory regime and control, nor can it be governed by or brought into the courts. Instead, it is evaluated and judged by each of us, by the international community. This is how Netflix is also evaluated," said the Minister of Culture./BGNES
